


Day Twenty-Four – Musical instruments

by ShortyStacks, Skiewrites



Series: Linktober 2020 [14]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Linked Universe, Linktober, Linktober 2020, POV Second Person, day 24 - musical instruments, either legend or hryule depends how you read it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:07:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27202915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShortyStacks/pseuds/ShortyStacks, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skiewrites/pseuds/Skiewrites
Summary: You spot the Hero of Time’s ocarina, tied neatly to his belt, one day while travelling.
Series: Linktober 2020 [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949662
Kudos: 18





	Day Twenty-Four – Musical instruments

You spot the Hero of Time’s ocarina, tied neatly to his belt, one day while travelling.

There’s nothing particularly strange about the instrument, it looks like every other ocarina, or at least, the one’s that you’ve seen. The colour of it is a bit odd, in your eyes, for you know that wood could never achieve that sparkle of blue, no matter the wood type, no matter the paint. Something about it strikes you as off, a sense of something was no what it should be. But Time made no point of explaining his instrument to the group so maybe it was just that. An instrument.

You make a point to ask that night while at the campfire, surrounded by the warmth of the flickering flames and the people you have come to know as your family. The conversation dulls as you ask your question, and Time side eyes you as he picks up his ocarina, staring at it with a look of nostalgia that you yourself have yet to experience.

Time’s story starts as a boy in the middle of the forest, with a goodbye to a dear friend.

You have grown up on stories about the Hero of Time, who died while trying to fight Ganon. He was a child, and he failed. There's a moral to the story in there somewhere, but you’ve long forgotten it and the point still stands. The Hero of Time died. A war began, and the problems with the 'fallen' timeline started.

This Hero of Time cannot be the one that you grew up with, however. No, your Hero of Time is long dead, a tragically death for a tragically young hero. This Hero of Time is old, experienced. He has lived multiple lives and been on adventures you could only wish for, ones

But then Time finally tells the group his story, about the ocarina gifted to him by the princess, about how the master sword sealed him away for seven years, how the time travel worked and how he jumped from one time period to another. From one body to another. He talks about the trauma that came with it, about the bloody battle with Ganondorf. About, how at the end of the battle, Zelda tells him to go back to his childhood, and leave behind the childhood that he had previously, and to go on to make a better adulthood.

And you, learn the truth behind your history. The Hero of Time didn't die in some glorious battle like you were told growing up, merely a lie to make people feel better about themselves when it comes to the reality of the situation. Things were so bad that even a hero couldn't stop it.

But, as you learn, it was far from the truth.

The Hero of Time decided to leave that timeline behind, to let it fall into Ganon's hands when he could have gone back to save it. Everything that happened afterwards could have been stopped. All the pointless death and famine and war and plague: things were so bad because a hero couldn't be bothered to save you.

Their timeline was not the fallen timeline. It was the abandoned timeline. And the idea of abandonment, when everyone else if your life had already left you behind, hits you in the gut worse than any blade could.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm gonna catch up I swear
> 
> [Stack's Tumblr](https://shortstack757575.tumblr.com/)
> 
> [Skie's Tumblr](https://skiewrites.tumblr.com/)


End file.
